By Dan Walters :calmatters – excerpt
A department store parking lot in downtown San Francisco is the battleground for a titanic political struggle between rival factions of the city’s dominant Democratic Party.
The lot at 469 Stevenson Street, just off Market Street, would become a 27-story residential high-rise, if Mayor London Breed and other housing advocates have their way. But San Francisco’s legislative body, the Board of Supervisors, refused last year to approve the project, siding with those who oppose packing more housing and people into the densely populated city.
It was a win for Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO), a coalition of project opponents. But the action angered Lou Vazquez, one of the project’s developers, who said, “This is the right project for the right place. It’s close to jobs and transit, it’s providing transit for residents at all levels of income in the middle of a greater center.”…
However, project proponents apparently didn’t know that two days earlier, very quietly, a Superior Court judge had ruled against them (Case # CPF-22-517661) in the Yes in My Backyard lawsuit. Judge Cynthia Ming-Mei Lee declared, in essence, that none of the violations alleged in the suit can be applied until the Board of Supervisors “completes adequate environmental review under CEQA.”
Pro-housing groups see her ruling as an invitation to local bodies such as the Board of Supervisors to stall CEQA reviews of projects they oppose and thereby stall legal action to push projects forward.
“This CEQA ruling on the Stevenson St. housing project is every bit as outrageous as the UC Berkeley ‘students-are-pollution’ CEQA ruling,” Senator Wiener tweeted. “We must clarify CEQA doesn’t give cities the power to ignore state housing law. Better yet, let’s remove infill housing from CEQA entirely.”
A bill to counteract what the supervisors did to stall the project died in the Legislature this year. But the court’s decision and Wiener’s remarks indicate that the conflict over 469 Stevenson Street may become a statewide issue when the Legislature reconvenes…(more)
RELATED:
More on the YIMBY case.
This link to twitter includes the case number: and details. I’m surprised that i have to go through twitter to get this.
Case # CPF-22-517661
Judge: HO. Cynmthia Ming-mei-Lee
Register of Actions: